May 18
323BCE:Alexander dies at the age of 32. Despitethe legend, there is no proof that Alexander ever came to Jerusalem. He did pass through Judea on his way toconquer Egypt and on his way from the victory.He left the Jews in peace to practice their religion and to live in asemi-independent status. This was hisstandard treatment for all those who did not oppose him. He and his subordinates encouraged Jews tosettle in Egypt and throughout Asia Minor.The Jews were allowed to live in their own communities where they weregoverned by their own councils and courts.Alexander was viewed as an enlightened monarch in much the way thatCyrus the Great had been.
363:The first of a series of earthquakes that would last for two days rocked theGalilee.
576:Over 500 Jews were forcibly baptized in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
1096(4856):Jews of Worms (Germany) were massacred by Crusaders. The survivors hid in theBishop's palace for one week, after which they were either murdered or forciblybaptized.
1152:Henry II, King of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. This marriage producedtwo future Kings of England – Richard I (known as the Lionhearted) and KingJohn, the monarch who signed the Magna Charta.For the Jews, Henry’s reign was an improvement over that of hispredecessor, King Stephen. While Richardwas semi-protective of his Jewish subjects, they suffered at the hands of thosewho wielded power while he was off crusading or fighting to protect his landsin France. In the first part of his reign,John maintained a positive relationship with his Jewish subjects, but as timewent on he turned on them and made unrealistic financial demands on thecommunity.
1268:Following the Battle of Antioch the Principality of Antioch, a crusader state,falls to Baibars I the Mamluk Sultan. During the Mamluk Sultanate, there was anupswing in anti- dhimmī feeling although much of this was really aimed at theChristians who held positions in the government and the Jews were just“tangential beneficiaries” of this attitude.
1291:A year after the Jews were expelled from England, after a two month siege, thefortress at Acre (Israel) falls to the Fatimid Egyptians, thus bringing aboutthe end of the Crusades. Subsequently, the various crusading armies neversucceeded in uniting as a cohesive force. The infighting and separate treatiesdefeated them as well as the Fatimid armies. “The founder of the Fatimiddynasty was Ubeidullah, known as the Mahdi. He was accused of Jewish ancestryby his adversaries the Abbasids, who declared him the grandson of Abdullah ibnMaymun, by a Jewess.”
1418:Representatives from the Jewish communities of central and northern Italy metto discuss raising funds for self-defense as well as instituting sumptuaryregulations so as "not to show off in the presence of Gentiles." Itis plausible that the issuing of these sumptuary regulations, influenced PopeMartin V to issue a protective Bull the following year.
1429:In Pamplona, the coronation of Queen Bianca, who in1415 expelled the Jews from Vizzinicame to an end
1530:The Edict of Innsbruck issued today confirmed a charter of protection for theJews of Germany that Josel of Rosheim had obtained from Charles V shortly afterhe had “ascended the throne at Accehn in 1520.”
1721:In Madrid, 96-year-old Maria Barbara Carillo was burned alive making her theoldest known victim of the Inquisition.
1729(19thof Iyar, 5489): Mordeccai Mokiach, the father of Judah Lob Mokiach and thegrandfather of David Berline Mokiach and Isaiah Berlin Mokiach who preachedthat Sabbatai Zevi, the “False Messiah” would return in three years to finishhis work, passed away today in Pressburg.
1753(14thof Iyar): Pesach Sheni is obserbed four days before the House of Commons passedThe Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753
1756(18thof Iyar, 5516): Lag B’Omer
1756:Abigail Franks, the wife of Jacob Franks who had married her in 1712 was buriedtoday.
1762:At East Hampton, Long Island, Aaron Isaacs and his wife gave birth to EstherIsaacs.
1771(5thof Sivan, 5531): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1775((18thof Iyar, 5535): Lag B’Omer is celebrated on the same day that SecondContinental Congress learns that British forces are on their way from Englandto North America which means King George and Parliament are not going to talkbut are going to put down the Resolution by force of arms.
1790(5thof Sivan, 5550): Erev Shavuot
1792(26thof Iyar): Canadian Jewish leader Levy Solomons passed away.
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/solomons_lucius_levy_4E.html
1792:Start of the Polish-Russian War which lead to further partition of Poland andLithuania with all of the negative consequences that would have for the Jews ofthat region.
1793:Aaron Lazarus and Sophia Lehman were married at the Great Synagogue in London.
1794(18thof Iyar, 5554): Lag B’Omer
1794:Betty Hart, the first American female convert to Judaism, married Moses Nathans
1803;The Napoleonic Wars with all that would mean for the Jews of Europe began, whenthe United Kingdom declares war on France, after France refuses to withdrawfrom Dutch territory.
1810(14thof Iyar, 5570): Pesach Sheni observed on the first day of the May Revolution inBuenos Aires, which marked the start of the first successful South Americanrevolt against Spain.
1812(7thof Sivan, 5572): Second Day of Shavuot
1813(18thof Iyar, 5573: Lag B’Omer observed as can be seen by the following two items.
1813:Nathan Benjamin and Catherine Moses were married today at the Great Synagoguein London.
1813:Myer Marks married Elizabeth Davis today at the Great Synagogue.
1817:Henry Naphtali Solomon and Fanny Phillips were married at the Great Synagoguein London.
1820(5thof Sivan, 5580): Erev Shavuot
1825(1stof Sivan, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1825:Joseph Levy and the former Bluma Jacobs gave birth to Nery Levy
1829:Birthdate Leipsic trained physician Adolph Klein who practiced at Konigsbergfrom 1859 to 1870 before pursuing a career as journalist who sometime used thepenname “Dr. Nielk Floda.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9371-klein-adolph
1832:Eliakim Carmoly, a French-born Talmudist and author, was named to serve as arabbi in Brussels.
1830:In Keszthely, Hungary Chazan Ruben Goldmark and his wife gave birth toviolinist and composer Karl Godmark.
1837:In Saxony, the Jews “were empowered to organize themselves into communitieswith chapels of their own, and were granted citizenship, with the exception ofmunicipal and political rights.
1839(5thof Sivan,5599): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1839:In the Netherlands Jacob Hirschel Kann and Amalie de Jonge gave birth to HenrikJacob Kann
1842:Chilo Myers and Caroline Medex were married today at the Great Synagogue inLondon.
1843(18thof Iyar, 5603): Lag B’Omer
1843:After having observed Rosh Hashanah in September of 1842, today a minyangathered at the home of Peter Spitz in Roxbury, MA for the B’rit of Spitz’sfirst-born son after which they “decided to form a congregation which theynamed Ohabei Shalom (Lovers of Peace), “and hired a man from Albany to serve astheir cantor, teacher, ritual slaughterer, and circumciser.”
https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/boston-jews-petition-for-first-cemetery.html
1846(22ndof Iyar, 5606): Fifty-nine-year-old Esther Lyons, the Baltimore born daughterof Eleazar Lyons and the wife of Isaac Lazarus whom she married in Philadelphiain 1805 passed away tody.
1847(3rdof Sivan, 5607): Moses Calmus Lissa passed away
1847:Mark George Simmons married Caroline Lazarus at 32 Finsbury Square in London.(As reported by Cemetery Scribes)
1850:In Krotoschin, Germany, Simon Gienenstock, the Berlin born son of RobertBienenstock and his wife Helena gave birth to Emma Lowewen, the wife of DavidLoewen.
1852:In Amsterdam, Jacob and Rebecca Mozes Gans gave birth to Isaac Jacob Gans, “thehusband of Vogeltje Dooseman” and the “father of Rebecca Gans; Jacob Gans;Betje 'Isaac' Gans and Anna Frank.”
1852:“’In Zamość, in Lublin Governorate, Congress Poland, a city known as animportant center of the Haskalah, a merchant name Yude Perezt and his wife Rivke gave birth Isaac Leib Peretz,known to the world as I.L. Peretz who along with Mendele Mokher Seforim andSholem Aleichem was one of the three “big guns” of Yiddish literature.
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Peretz_Yitskhok_Leybush
1854:District Rabbi Jonas Wiesner and his wife Estra gave birth to Rosa WiesnerLowi.
1854:Fifty-two-year-old French journalist Samuel Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy “the sonof Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy” “was elected to the Académie française”today.
1856:In Baltimore, MD Abraham and Sophia Rider Einstein gave birth to Sarah EinsteinWeil the wife of Goldsboro, NC resident Solomon Weil.
1857:“The constitution of the Hebrew Indigent, Sick and Burial Society was adopted”today in La Crosse, WI.
1859: In Great Britain, the General Elections which saw DavidSalomons re-elected as the MP for Greenwich came to an end.
1860:In Chicago, Illinois, the Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln forPresident of the United States. Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, a 28-year-old lawyerfrom Louisville, Kentucky, was one of the three delegates who put Lincoln’sname in nomination. Dembitz was the uncle of Louis Dembitz Brandeis, who wouldemulate his uncle’s legal career and then excel it as the first Jewish SupremeCourt Justice.
1862(18thof Iyar, 5622): Lag B’Omeer
1862(18thof Iyar, 5622): Sixty-six-year-old Samuel Etting, the Maryland born son ofRachel Gratz and Solomon Etting who were married in 1791 and the husband ofEllen Hays whom he married in 1828 and with whom he had two children, Josephineand Solomon, passed away today.
1863(29thof Iyar, 5623): Evan Davis who rose from the rank of Sergeant to First Lieutenantin Company of the 115th Regiment died today “at Potomac Creek,Virigina from wounds suffered while fighting the Rebels at Chancellorsville onMay 3.
1863:Birthdate of Danville, VA native J. Hamilton “Ham” Lewis who as a Congressmanfrom Illinois supported a “proviso in the Balfour Declaration that Jews goingto Palestine to live could retain their original citizenship instead ofautomatically becoming British subjects” and who as U.S. Senatorled “aprotest against the possible transfer of American Jews from their present homesin Palestine to other parts of the country.”
1863:“The Battle of Vicksburg” in which Marcus M. Speigel, the son of Rabbi MosesSpeigel and the brother of Joseph Spiegel, the founder of Speigel Catalog ledthe 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry began today.
1865(22ndof Iyar): David ben Moses Frankel, editor of Sulamith, passed away.
1865:In San Francisco, Joseph M. Brandenstein and his wife Jane gave birth toManfred Bransten
1868:As the United States entered into a Presidential election year, The New YorkTimes published excerpts an article from the Jewish Messenger describingthe role of “Hebrews” in the political life of Europe and the UnitedStates. In the United States, Jews arenot “a compact body for political purposes…In the coming campaign, Hebrews willwork, and talk, and vote precisely according to their convictions as citizensand in no respect will their political action be dependent upon their religiouscharacter as a body. There is nonational Hebrew vote.”
1869:Birthdate of Henriette Moses, who was shipped from Berlin to Terezin in 1942and from Terezin to Auschwitz, where she died in May of 1944.
1870:Birthdate of Polish native and insurance executive Jay Arthur Feffer who wasthe “president of the Federation of Charities in St. Joseph, MO.
1870:“Mount Sinai Hospital” published today reported that the New York Times was wrong when it said that Mount Sinai Hospital wasmaintained by Jews for use by Jews. “Theinstitution is supported by Jewish contribution and its directors” are Jewish“but it has always opened its doors to patients without the slightest regard tocreed.” [In fact the hospital had beenstarted before the Civil War to serve the needs of immigrants and indigentJews. During the Civil War that roledefinitely changed as it became a treatment cite for thousands of Union woundedbeginning with McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign in 1862.]
1872: Birthdate of Lord Bertrand Russell, Britishmathematician and philosopher. LordRussell was pro-Palestinian describing them as innocent refugees and describingIsrael as occupying land ‘given’ by a foreign powerto the Jewish people for the creation of a new state.
1873: Two days after he had passed away, 49-year-old Henry Levy,the son of Joseph Levy and Hannah Isaacs was buried today at the “Brompton(Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1873: An informal reception was held today the recently openedhome for aged and infirmed Hebrews at 63rd street and LexingtonAvenue. The building, which can accommodate 50 individuals, is currently hometo 26 women and 2 men. They range in age from 70 to 95. Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen is President of theBoard of Directors.
1876:Wyatt Earp starts work as a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas. When he died, Earp’sashes were buried in a Jewish cemetery in Colma, California. No, the famous marshal was not Jewish but hiswife Josie was and her family had enough power and influence to wriggle aroundthe laws forbidding such burials.
1876:In Ogdensburg, NY, Rabbi Mordecai Joseph Brill and Lottie (Tumim) Brill gavebirth to Abram Brill, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and HebrewUnion College and husband of Edna Goldstein who led congregations in Helena,AR, Greenville, MI, Wheeling, W.Va, and Meridian, MI before beginning histenure as rabbi at B’nai Zion Temple in Shreveport, home of Centenary Collegewhich honored him with an “Honorary Degree of Doctor Of Laws.”
1876:The New York Times featured a review of “Stray Studies From England andItaly” a collection of essays by John Richard Green. “Mr. Green shows how mistaken the modernconception” is when it comes to understanding the treatment of English Jewsduring the Middle Ages. “That conceptionis accurately represented by Scott’s picture of Isaac of York in “Ivanhoe,”timid, silent crouching under oppression.The Jew was really…the favorite ‘chattel’ of the king was protected bythe crown not only against the people but against the law. Each Hebrewsettlement in England was secured from the common taxation, the common justice,the common obligations of Englishman.The Jewry was a town within a town, with its own language, its peculiardress, commerce, law and religion. Nobailiff could penetrate it; the Church itself was even powerless against thesynagogue which it contained. InEngland, at least, the attitude of the Jew was to the end, one of haughtydefiance. His extortion was shelteredfrom the common law. His bonds were keptunder the royal seal. Heavy penaltieswere enforced against outbreaks of popular violence upon the Jews. Mentioning the story of the Red King’sforbidding the conversion of a Jew, because a valuable property would be lostto him.” [Editor’s note – The Red King may refer to the third son of Williamthe Conqueror, William II who was known as William Rufus. Green was an English clergyman who turned towriting histories when his health forced him to leave the pulpit. His description stands in stark contrast tothe exploitation that English Jews suffered and makes no mention of theirexpulsion.
1877(6thof Sivan, 5637): Shavuot observed for the first time during the Presidency ofRutherford B. Hayes.
1878(15th of Iyar, 5638): Parashat Behar
1879: "The Family Sentiment in Americans" published today claims that people in theUnited States are changing their views about family history and genealogysaying that "next to the Jews, we are becoming the genealogical nation onthe face of the earth."
1879: A prominent New York banker who is a member ofTemple Emanu-El said today that Lewis May, one of the most outspoken advocatesfor replacing Saturday morning services with Sunday morning serves has justbeen re-elected as the congregation’s President. In his acceptance address, Mr. May expresseda personal distaste for the change butsaid he recognized it as a necessity since many of the younger men belonging tothe Temple could not attend services on Saturday for commercial reasons.
1879: Three days after she had passed away, ClairetteBensadoun, the “daughter of Roubin and Marion Bensadoun” was buried today atthe “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1879: “Some Old Graveyards” published today describesearly burial sites in New York City including one on the east side of the NewBowery below Chatham square known as the Olivers Street Burying Ground whichwas the original cemetery belonging to Shearith Israel, also known as theNineteenth Street Congregation. The plotwas conveyed to the congregation by Noyes Willey of London who received thirtyEnglish Pounds for the land. The Jews had been using the land for burials sincethe 17th century since there are tombstones there bearing the datesof 1669 and 1684. The congregation formally stopped using this cemetery in 1820when a city ordinance banned burials in that part of the city.
1880: Rosa Sonneschein read “The Pioneers: An HistoricalEsssay” at a meeting of the Society of Pioneers.
1880: In Szczecin, Heinemann Vogelstein and his wife gavebirth to their third son banker and industrialist Theodor Vogelstein.
1881: Raizel (Ruth) Miller and Harry (Hillel) Miller, apeddler in Poland gave birth to future Rhode Island resident Sarah Miller Fishbein,the wife of Louis Fishbein and the mother of Morris, Jay, Nathan, Ralph,Mathew, Joseph, Samuel and Arthur Fishbeing
1884: In Suwalki, Poland Hashel Lena Trilling and Louis Lazur Lewisongave birth to Northwestern University Medical School graduate and Professor ofPhysical Diagnois at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Dr. MauriceLewison who came to the United
States at the age of five where he raised two children Ethel Mae Lewison andEdward Lewison who served as captain in Army Medical Corps during WW II.
1885: In Bleckede, Germany, clothing shop owner BernhardLowenstein and the former Jeanette Blumenthal gave birth rabbi turned Socialistpolitical leader Kurt Lowenstein, the husband of chemist Mara Kerwel.
1889: In Milwaukee, WI, Elizabeth Schapiro and HermanSchlomovitz gave birth Rush Medical trained medical doctor and WW I U.S. ArmyMedical Corps veteran Benjamin Herman Schlomotvitz, the director of departmentof Physiology at Marquette University and director of Clinical Research Laboratory of U.S. Hospitals.
1890: Today’s “Amusem*nts” column includes a review of“The Shatchen” which opened at the Star Theatre last week. M.B. Curtis dominates the comedy with his“droll caricature” of the German Jewish businessman.
1890(28th of Iyar, 5650): Fifty-eight-year-oldKate Frances Cohen the daughter of Kitty Etting and Benjamin Cohen who weremarried in 1819 passed away today.
1890: “For An Educational Fund” published today describedthe successful Strawberry Festival sponsored by the Young Men’s HebrewAssociation during which three thousand attendees raising $3,500 that will goto the association’s educational department.
1891: “Oriental Records” published today contains adetailed review of Records of the Past, an English translation of theAncient Monuments of Egypt and Western Asia, edited by A. H. Sayce
1891(10th of Iyar): Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein,leader of Hungarian Jewry, passed away
1893: “Hardships of Russian Jews” published todaydescribed the benefits of efforts by the United States to lessen the sufferingJews living under the Czar. Doing sowould cut down on the number of immigrants coming to the United States and atthe same time would lessen the burden on those Americans trying to find jobsand homes for immigrants from Poland and Russia.
1893(3rd of Sivan, 5653): In Pennsylvania,Isaac Rosenwig and Harris Blank “the only people of the Jewish faith everexecuted for murder in this country” were hug after being found guilty ofmurdering eighteen-year-old Jacob Marks, a peddler whom they had robbed of hisgoods.
1894: Members of the Board of Trustees of the HebrewBenevolent and Orphan Asylum Society were those who attended the funeral ofSigmund J. Bach as requested by Myer Stern and the Board of Trustees.
1895: In Chicago, the Young Men’s Hebrew ReliefAssociation whose members included Charles Herron and Paul Pogarelsky wasorganized today to served “as loan association.”
1895: Justice Ingram gave the managers of the Home forAged and Infirm Hebrews of New York City to mortgage its property at 106thStreet and Columbus Avenue to the Bowery Savings Bank for $75, 000.
1896(6thof Sivan, 5656): Shavuot
1896:The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessyv. Ferguson that “separate but equal” is constitutional. This decision marked the legal nadir in thefield of civil rights in general and race relations in particular. It was from this pit that severalorganizations, many of them funded by Jews and/or with a statisticallydisproportionate Jewish involvement, had to climb until the High Court woulddeclare in 1954 that separate but equal was inherently unequal.
1896:Based on information supplied by TheLondon Times, the New York Timesreported today that the work of the Jewish Colonization Association willcontinue despite the recent death of its founder and benefactor, BaronHirsch. Dr. S.H. Goldschmidt of Pariswill now service as President of the Association with assistance from HerbertG. Lousade of the Anglo-Jewish Association of London. Currently, 1,222 families occupy the 225,000acres in Argentina under the association’s control.
1896:Birthdate of Tampa, FL native David Archer Falk, the Washington and Lee trainedlawyer who had earned his bachelor’s degree from the same institution.
1897:Today, William W. Morrow, who championed the cause of Adolph Kutner, a Jew whowas afraid to return to his native land because of the Czar’s policies “wasnominated by President William McKinley to a joint seat on the United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts forthe Ninth Circuit.”
1897:Anti-Semitic violence broke out in Algeria when “the main synagogue ofNestaganem, Algeria was sacked by anti-Jewish rioters.”
1898:During the Spanish American War, 2nd Lt. Charles Wolf, SergeantCharles Olschefskie and Privates Simon J. Bush, Simon Freund and Samuel Shapirowere among those in Company A of the 1st Connecticut VolunteerInfantry who were mustered into the United States Army.
1898:One day after he had passed away, 32-year-old Leon Ziff was buried in London atthe “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898:During the Spanish American War, Corporal John Fehliman of Kansas City andPrivates Samuel Marolis, Philip Steinman, Wlater Gans, Levi Cubine, AdolphRubel and Charles B. Solomon (the last two from Mexico, MO) were among thosewho part of the 5th Missouri Volunteer Infantry which was musteredinto federal service at Jefferson Barracks, MO.
1899:Randolph Guggenheimer, President of the Municipal Council will the deliver theaddress at this afternoon’s ceremonies dedicated the new Hebrew CharitiesBuilding at 21st Street and Second Avenue.
1899(9thof Sivan, 5659): Fifty-year-old Julius Hirsch , native of Mannheim, Germany whocame to New York In 1870 where he became “a prominent member of the ProduceExchange” passed away today.
1900:In “Topical Study” published today in DieWelt Isaac Rulf warned Jews of the danger presented by an increase inanti-Semitism in Germany, including the possibility of murder by the millions.Ruif died a year later but his children did not escape the Holocaust. One sondied at Auschwitz and the other committed suicide before he could be shipped tothe camps.
1900In Pilsen, “journalist and theatre director Julius Hirsch and his wife Camillagave birth to David Hirsch the actor and director known as Wolfgang Heinz.
1901:Herzl is called to the palace again. He is presented with a tie-pin with yellowstones. Herzl hands out the sum of 40.000 francs to Nouri Bey and Crespi forhaving brought the audience about.
1901(29thof Iyar, 5661): Parashat Bamidbar
1901:The celebration marking the golden jubilee of Temple Beth Elohim, “the oldestsynagogue in Brooklyn” continued for a second day.
1902:Herzl receives a letter from Constantinople that his letter concerning arequest for the creation of an Israelite University in Jerusalem was submittedto the Sultan.
1902”“East Side Boycotters Meet and Organize” published in the New York Timesdescribed the formation of The Ladies’ Anti-Beef Trust Association which plansto establish co-operative stores if the price of beef being sold on the LowerEast Side is not lowered
1903:The Times of London published aletter from Vyacheslav von Plehve, the Russian Minister of the Interior to thedistrict’s governor, dated 12 days before the riots known as the KishinevPogroms, advising the governor not to act against rioters. “The Russiangovernment asserted that it was a forgery and provided a bogus claim that thepogroms had started when a Jewish carousel owner hit a Christian woman.Christians defended themselves and then the Jews attacked them, killing onegentile.”
1903:Arthur Paul Nicholas Cassini, the Russian Ambassador to the United Statesjustified the Pogrom at Kishinev during an interview given today.
There is in Russia, asin Germany and Austria, a feeling against certain of the Jews. The reason forthis unfriendly attitude is found in the fact that the Jews will not work inthe field or engage in agriculture. They prefer to be money lenders. ... Thesituation in Russia, so far as the Jews are concerned is just this: It is thepeasant against the money lender, and not the Russians against the Jews. Thereis no feeling against the Jew in Russia because of religion. It is as I havesaid—the Jew ruins the peasants, with the result that conflicts occur when thelatter have lost all their worldly possessions and have nothing to live upon.There are many good Jews in Russia, and they are respected. Jewish genius isappreciated in Russia, and the Jewish artist honored. Jews also appear in thefinancial world in Russia. The Russian Government affords the same protectionto the Jews that it does to any other of its citizens, and when a riot occursand Jews are attacked the officials immediately take steps to apprehend thosewho began the riot, and visit severe punishement upon them."
1904:Birthdate of Senator Jacob K Javits. Born in New York,Javitsgraduated from NYU Law School. He served in the Army duringWorld II. Following the war he became active in Republican politics inNew York. Before coming to the Senate, Javits served in the House ofRepresentatives and as Attorney-General for the state of New York. Javitswas a leader of the liberal wing of the Republican Party and staunch supporterof the Civil Rights movement. Javitsserveduntil January,1981. Having been defeated he resumed his law practice and lectured atColumbia. He passed away in 1986.
1905:In Vienna, Kamilla (Feitler) and Siegmund Zeisl gave birth to composer ErichZeisl.
1905:Frederick Kerry arrived in the United States. Now a Roman Catholic, atbirth Kerry was a Jew named Fritz Kohn. He and his Jewish wife Ida werebaptized in 1901 to avoid the stigma associated with being Jewish inAustria. Frederick Kerry is the grandfather of Senator John Kerry, theDemocratic candidate for President of the United States. At least two ofhis relatives perished in the Holocaust.
1906:Birthdate of New York City native and JTS ordained Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin, theholder of degrees from CCNY, Dropsie College and Columbia who became the leaderof Ansche Chesed in Manhattan.
1907(5thof Sivan, 5667): Parashat Bamidbar, erev of Shavuot
1907:Shabbat morning services are held for the first time in the office new home ofTemple Israel in Harlem
1907:Dr. Felix Mottl, the Austrian conductor and composer whom many erroneously believedwas Jewish because of his name was completely vindicated today in a libel suitbrought against in Munich today.
1908:It was reported today that Isidore Isaacs, the Grand Marshall of the Grand Armyof the Republic had attended the memorial service conducted by the Hebrew UnionVeteran Association and the Hebrew Veterans of the War with Spain at TempleRodeph Sholom to honor fallen soldiers and sailors.
1908:It as reported today that at the 16th annual meeting of the Jewish-AmericanHistorical Society, Isidor Straus’motion to spend $250 “to carry on the work of indexing the articles which have appearedin various periodicals’ was approved afterwhich Leon Huelmer presented a paper on “Jewish Privateering in the EighteenthCentury” and Walter H. Liebman presented a paper on ‘some hitherto unpublishedcorrespondence between Solomon Etting, the prominent Jewish merchant ofBaltimore and Henry Clay, on the occasion of Clay’s introducing the expression ‘theJew’ in a debate in the Senate of the United States…”
1909:It was reported today that at meeting of a committee appointed by the JewishCommunal Council whose members included State Supreme Court Justice SamuelGreenbaum, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Edward Lauterbach, Leopold Stern, Marcus Marks,Jonas Weil, Charles Dittman, Nathaniel Myers and Mortimer L. Schiff theInstitution for the Improvement and Instruction of Deaf Mutes will bere-organized under Jewish control and “that $30,000 has been raised” for thisproject.
1910:Turkish Minister of Education advocates adoption of Hebrew as national languageof Turkish Jews.
1910:The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities inthe United States continued to meet for a second day in St. Louis, MO.
1910: Franz Kafka and a few of his friends gathered to observe Halley’s Comet.
1911:Bruno Walter was at the deathbed of Gustav Mahler who died today attheage of 50. Born Jewish, Mahler converted to Catholicism, so he couldbecome head of the court opera in Austria. His conversion did not sparehim the contempt of his enemies.
1912:Hans Kelsen, “the son of middle-class German speaking Jews, who had convertedto Catholicism while working on his dissertation married Margaret Bondi today,just days after converted Lutheranism.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kelsen-hans
1912:In Philadelphia, PA, Russian Jewish immigrants gave birth to Richard Saxs whoas Richard
Brooksgained fame as film writer, director and producer. Brooks received Oscarnominations for the screenplays for BlackboardJungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, In Cold Blood and The Professionals. He won anAcademy Award in 1960 for Elmer Gantry.
1913:In Hawthorne, NY, dedication of the “Brooklyn Cottage of Jewish Protectory.”
1913:In Peabody, MA, founding of Anshe Sfard synagogue.
1913:Birthdate Philadelphia native and Temple University graduate Martin Levey, thechemist who earned a doctorate in the history of science from Dropsie College,was member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and a member of thefaculty at SUNY, Albany.
http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/awards/Dexter%20Papers/LeveyDexterBioJJB.pdf
1914:It was reported today that five hundred people had attended the “memorialservices of the Hebrew Union Veterans Association and the Hebrew Veterans ofthe War with Spain” at Temple Rodeph Sholomo where the speakers includedCongressman Abraham Blum and Colonel Samuel H. Mildenberg.
1915(5thof Sivan, 5675): Erev Shavuot
1915:A day after Sir Edgar Speyer wrote to Prime Minister Asquith him to revoke hisbaronetcy and Privy Council Membership in response to chauvinistic assaults onhis patriotism, the Globe published an editorial demanding “that Anglo-Germanpublish ‘loyalty letters.’”
1915:“A number of the most prominent business men of Paterson, NJ, who haveinterested themselves in the nation-wide campaign to secure clemency for Leo M.Frank of Atlanta, GA met today and passed resolutions to add their pleadings tothose of the great multitude who are endeavoring to influence Governor Slaton.
1915:Twenty-year-old Boston native Henry Landers Bostick the University of Denverstudent and right-handed infielder made his major league debut with thePhiladelphia Athletics (now the Oakland A’s)
1915:In Worcester, MA, Benjamin and Mary Meltzer gave birth to “Milton Meltzer, ahistorian and prolific author of nonfiction books for young people who helpedstart a movement away from the arid textbook style of the past.” (As reported by Dennis Heveis)
1915:It was reported today that the Governor of Georgia has received “more than75,000 letters and telegrams all parts of the United States urging that LeoFrank be saved from death” while “fewer than twenty letters” have been receivedsuggesting “that the death sentence be executed.”
1916:“The Chicago committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers raised $350,000tonight at a meeting in the Auditorium, attended by 5,000 persons.”
1916:Senator Boise Penrose who in 1911 described “discrimination by the RussianGovernment against American Hebrews as an assault on American principles andtraditions” and assured a delegation of Jews from Philadelphia “that he agreedwith their contention that the violation of their treaty rights as Americancitizens was not a proper subject for an arbitration tribunal but should resultin the passing of a resolution by Congress denouncing the present treaty” withRussia began serving as a Member of the Republican National Committee fromPennsylvania.
1916:“In today's issue of The American Hebrew, edited by Herman Bernstein, astatement appears in which Mr. Bernstein comments on the Russian Premier andthe proposal for a new commercial treaty between the United States and Russia.”
1917(26thof Iyar, 5677): Seven-year-old Stanley Bernstein, the son of Ike and JeanBernstein passed away at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
1917(26thof Iyar, 5677): Sixty-seven-year-old Charles Pearlman passed away today inSouth Shields, UK.
1917:According to “official advices received in Washington” today, “Turkish militaryauthorities in Palestine are in engaged in driving the Jews into the hinterlandand away from the Mediterranean Coast”
1918(7thof Sivan, 5678): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1918:“The Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs announced”today “that the Italian Government through its Ambassador at the Court of St.James has officially signified its approval of the English and Frenchdeclarations in favor of the Zionist movement and of a Jewish national homelandin Palestine.”
1918:Birthdate of Lillian Napsky Ableman, the wife of Max Ableman
1918:“The Neighborhood House and Talmud Torah” recently consecrated by theSisterhood of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue which started as the Ladies’Sewing Circle in 1847, announced that will offer special activities designed tomeet the needs of “Oriental Jews” many of whom are poor but “decline to acceptcharity” which being eager to gain employment “and the education that willprepare them for citizenship.”
1918:Georg Nicolai writes to Albert Einstein telling him that he should not reproachhimself for not taking an even more active role in protests against the war.
1919(18thof Iyar, 5679): Lag B’Omer
1919:Hortense Adamsky and Lester B. Yates are among those scheduled to be confirmedthis morning at Sinai Congregation, on the south side of Chicago.
1920:Birthdate of Manhattan native Isabelle Charlotte Weinstein who gained fames asIsabelle Goldenson, “the wife of American Broadcasting Company founder andchairman Leonard Goldenson, and a co-founder of the charity United CerebralPalsy (UCP).”
1921:In Philadelphia, “Lester Waas and the former Alice Maybaum gave birth to LesterMorton “Les” the man responsible for creating the Mister Softee jingle.
1921:Ra'anana, an agricultural settlement is founded in the Sharon region.
1921:The Nation included an essay by LilyWinner entitled "American Emigrés." http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/18/1921/lily-winner
1922:In Revere, MA, Mollie (née Friedopfer) and Michael Garber, a manufacturer gavebirth to Wolf Martin Garber who gained fame as actor Bill Macy best known forhis role of Walter Findlay in the sitcom “Maude.”
1922:“Financial men are not opposed to a bonus for deserving soldiers, but areopposed to the bonus measure in its present form in Congress, S. StanwoodMenken, President of the National Security” and Jewish born son of Memphis dry goodsstore owner Nathan Menken who stopped using his first name of Solomon when heconverted to Christianity “declared in the course of an address before the closingsession of the annual convention of the Maryland Bankers’ Association.’
1923:It was reported today that at a dinner for French Ambassador Jules, J.Jusserand, Oscar S. Straus, the former Ambassador to Turkey told the tale ofhow the Ambassador had been forced to strip so he could take a surprise swim in Rock Creek with thenPresident Theodore Roosevelt.
1924(14thof Iyar, 5684): Pesach Sheni
1924:“What is said to the largest and finest Young Men’s Hebrew Association buildingin the country which was said to have cost $750,000 is scheduled to bededicated today in Newark, NJ.
1924(14thof Iyar, 5684): Seventy-eight-year-old Esther Anna Phillips, a native ofLiverpool passed away today after which she was buried in the Jewish cemeteryat Natchitoches, LA “adjacent to Harold Phillips.”
1924:After two years of “being sickly,” Albert H. Loeb, the Vice President of Sears,Roebuck and Company displayed symptoms of heart trouble.
1925:In New York City, “Samuel David and Anna Robins (Block) Kasindorf” gave birthto Hunter College and NYU educated public school teacher Blanche RobinsKasindort who rose through the administrative ranks become a public schoolprincipal in Brooklyn starting in 1965.
1926(5thof Sivan, 5686) Erev Shavuot
1926:In the Bronx, “Leon and Ida (Granowski) Bregman” gave birth to producer MartinLeon Bregman whose body of work included “Serpico” and “Scarface.” (As reportedby Anita Gates)
1926:In Chicago, Professor James H. Breasted announced that Julius and WilliamRosenwald have donated $30,000 to be used in building a library near Luxor,Egypt that will be used by the veritable army of visiting scholars andscientist who come to the area each year.The Rosenwald’s general philanthropy was evident in a variety of secularand Jewish charitable activities.
1926:At the Brooklyn Hebrew Maternity Hospital, “a sultry dancer named MollieCharleston who went by the name of Mollie Charleston” gave birth to AlbertSchneider who claimed to be Alan Gershwin “the long-lost son of GeorgeGershwin.” (As reported by Margolick)
1927:Mayor Walker and more than 1,000 women welcomed Nathan Straus and Mrs. Strauson their return from a pilgrimage to Palestine at a tea given today at theHotel Commodore by the Brooklyn Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization.During his address to the group, Mr. Straus officially presented Hadassah withthe $250,000 health centre which is being built in Jerusalem.
1928:Today a project for a municipal milk supply in Warsaw was defeated in the CityCouncil by the combined vote of the Polish Nationalist and the Jewishmiddle-class Alderman. The municipal plan was backed by Pilsudski Party andJewish Socialists.
1929(8thof Iyar, 5689): Parashat Emor
1929(8thof Iyar, 5689): Albany, NY, native Edward Henry Bendel, the son of Henry andMary Bendel and the husband of Caroline Goldman Bendel passed away today inIndianapolis, Indiana.
1929(8thof Iyar, 5689): Ukraine born Elias Dubin, the husband of Edit Dubin and fatherof Abraham and William Dubin passed away today in Kings County, NY and as thenburied at the Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens County, NY.
1930:Birthdate of Senator Warren B Rudman. Born in Massachusetts, Rudman grewup in New Hampshire. A Korean War Era Veteran, Rudman practiced law in NewHampshire before beingelected to the Senate as a Republican in 1980. Heserved until January 1993, havingchosen not to run for re-election.He is best known for the Graham-Rudman-Hollings Act, also referred to as theBalanced Budgetand Deficit Control Act.
1930:Birthdate of Barbara Goldsmith, author of “Little Gloria:Happy At Last.”
1930: “Sunny Skies,” a musical directed by NormanTaurog and starring Benny Rubin was released today in the United States.
1931: In New York City, Leon and Ida Bregman gavebirth to Martin Bergman who went from entertainment agent to movie producer.
1932: In Prague, Czech-Jewish architect Otto Kohn andhis wife gave birth to MIT and Princeton educated professor of mathematicsJoseph John Kohn, the half-brother of movie director Milos Foreman.
https://dof.princeton.edu/people/joseph-john-kohn
https://www.bths.edu/apps/events/event.jsp?eREC_ID=231316&d=2227-10-20&id=20
1932(12th of Iyar, 5692): Seventy-three-year-oldPauline Heilbronner Hirschfeld, the wife of Leopold Hirschfeld with she had twochildren – Laura and Bella – passed away today after which she was buried atthe Laupheim Jewish Cemetery in Stuttgart, Germany.
1933: As part of the New Deal, Franklin Rooseveltsigns the law creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). David Lilienthal,the son Jewish immigrants from Czechoslovakia, was the Director of TVAresponsible for its early success and its ability to participate in theManhattan Project during World War II.
1934:The Academy Award is called Oscar in print for the first time by SidneySkolsky. Skolsky was a close friend ofAl Jolson and was responsible for the movie biography of the man who made thefirst “talkie
1934:It was reported today that "Leaping Lena" Levy has been Chicagosportswriter “that King Levinsky, the Windy City Walloper, otherwise known asthe Chicago Assassin, the Personality Kid, and as plain Harry Krakow, isreported to be suffering from a nervous breakdown.” Levinsky was one of averitable army of Jewish pugilists who fought during the 1920’s and 1930’s whenthe fight game was a Jewish game.
1935:In Chicago, civil engineer Solomon Kupperman and the former Sara Fischer gavebirth to Joel Jay Kupperman, the holder of a Ph.D. in philosophy from Cambridgeand the long time Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut whowas best known as one of the original Quiz Kids. (As reported by PenelopeGreen)
1936:It was announced in the House of Commons that a Royal Commission of Inquirywould be set up to investigate the cause of unrest in Palestine. The Commission became known as the PeelCommission because its chairman was Lord Peel.
1936:“All Jewish national institutions in Palestine closed at noon today in mourningfor Dr. Nahum Sokolow who died yesterday in London” and memorial services wereheld in the Jewish Agency Building with Menahem M. Ussishkin, president of theJewish National Fund…and David Ben Gurion chairman of the Jewish AgencyExecutive as the principal speakers.”
1936:“Occupants of a speeding automobile fired shots into a Jewish barber shop inthe Rehavia quarter of Jerusalem.”
1936:It was reported today that “A curfew order, forbidding residents of Jerusalemto leave their homes at night, was issued by Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, theHigh Commissioner of Palestine following the killing of three Jews at amotion-picture theatre."
1936:The British government responded to a request by the Jewish Public Works askingfor police protection for its workers by advising “the department to give itsemployees their annual vacations.
1936:In London, “the Colonial Secretary informed the House of Commons today that theCabinet had made its decision” “to appoint a royal commission to investigateArab and Jewish grievances on the spot” “without having consulted Arab orJewish leaders.”
1936:According to reports published today, the United Palestine Appeal is seeking toraise $3, 500,000 in the United States “to finance Jewish colonization and landpurchase in” Palestine after the Palestine Foundation Fund, the Jewish NationalFund and the German Settlement Bureau of the Jewish Agency for Palestine hadspent $2,061,720 “from October 1, 1935 to April 1, 1936 to aid the settlementin Plaestine of Jews from German, Poland and other lands.”
1937:Archbishop George Mundelein spoke out against the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany
1937: InBrooklyn, NY, Dewey and Adeline Weissfeld Albert gave birth to Jerome LewisAlbert “who with his father…created and operated Astroland, the spaceage-themed amusem*nt park that breathed new life into the Coney IslandBoardwalk in the 1960s, a time when it was losing its lure.” As reported byDennis Hevesi)
1938(16thof Iyar, 5698): Seventy-two-year-old Polish born, and Boston College ofPhysicians and Surgeons trained physician Dr. Jacob Oshlag who “specialized ingeneral diagnosis and psychiatry and who raised two sons, Harold Oshlag and Dr.Julius A. Oshlag, M.D. with his wife Dr. Ida Oshlag, M.D. passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/05/19/98137875.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1938:As Arab violence continued to escalate,The Palestine Post reported that Arab terrorists killed an Arab constablein Hebron. Arab farmers were robbed by Arab terrorists in villages aroundJenin. The Public Works Department property was set on fire in Nablus andJewish settlers near Hadera found their tractors and other machinery severelydamaged.
1939:A gathering of members of the Hashomer Ha’tzair movement took place atWieliczka, Poland.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/05.asp
1939:As Jews throughout Palestine protested against the White Paper with its limitof 75,000 Jews allowed to enter the country each year and the creation of astate that condemn the Jews to permanent minority status in violation of theBalfour Declaration and the Mandate, a resolution for Palestine Jewry was readaloud at the three hour long demonstration in Tel Aviv that stated in part:“Palestine Jewry declares the betrayal policy will never materialize…PalestineJewry does not recognize the arbitrary restriction of immigration. No power in the world can deter thenatural right of our people to come home…Palestine Jewry will not consent to leave the land of the countrydesolate, but undauntedly will continue reviving it.”
1940(10thof Iyar, 5700): Parashat Behard
1940:Today, in Florida, Fred Bergman is scheduled to be Bar Mitzvahed at Beth DavidSynagogue.
1940:Bernard Baruch ate lunch today with President Roosevelt at the White House.
1940:In Brooklyn, soda shop owner Samuel Leonard Lipschitz and Carrie Hibel gavebirth to Leonard Lipschitz who gained fame as Lenny Lipton the author of lyrics“Puff the Magic Dragon” the royalties of which he sued “to fund years ofpioneering research in 3-D filmmaking.(As reported by Clay Risen)
1941:Bernard Zell, his wife and first-born daughter who had fled east after BernardZell had learned that the Nazis and Soviets had signed a treaty “clearing theway for the German invasion of Poland, landed in Seattle today. “after arailroad journey across Siberia and ocean voyage from Japan” which was “fourmonths before businessman Samuel Zell was born.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-07-25-0407250445-story.html
1941:Jewish veterans honor their dead.
1941:Seventy-three year old German Werner Sombart author of Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews and ModernCapitalism) in which he documented “Jewish involvement in historiccapitalist development” in which “he argued that Jewish traders andmanufacturers, excluded from the guilds developed a distinctive antipathy tothe fundamental of medieval commerce” and DeutscherSozialismus in which he contendedthat “the antithesis of the German spirit is the Jewish spirit, which is not amatter of being born Jewish or believing in Judaism but is a capitalisticspirit” and the "chief task" of the German people and NationalSocialism is to destroy the Jewish spirit.”
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-jews-and-modern-capitalism-by-werner-sombart/
1941:Lee Shubert and Harry Hershfield are scheduled to be among the honorarypallbearers at today’s funeral for 61-year-old “theatrical producer MorrisGest” “in the Central Synagogue” at which Rabbi Jonah B. Wise will lead theservice.
1942:Duringa public protest of Nazi anti-Semitism staged in Berlin by Herbert Baum and hisfollowers, portions of "The Soviet Paradise," a government-sponsoredanti-Bolshevik exhibition, are set afire. Most members of Baum's group, as wellas approximately 500 other Berlin Jews, are arrested.
1942:The New York Times carried a reportby a United Press International correspondent who had been trapped in Berlin atthe outbreak of the war in December of 1941 and who reached Lisbon after beingtraded as part of a swap for Axis nationals in Allied hands. According tothe story 100,000 Jews had been slaughtered by the Nazis in the Baltic States,almost that many in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.
1942:Another 1,420 Jews arrived in the Lodz ghetto from Brzeziny. Like the Jews whoarrived the day before, their children were taken away from them. They weresent to Chelmno to be gassed.
1943:In the Shanghai Ghetto today was the deadline for complying with the Japanesedeclaration of a “Designated Area for Stateless Rights” which resulted in“about 18,000 Jews” being forced to relocate to a 3/4square mile area of Shanghai's Hongkou district, where many lived in grouphomes called "Heime" or "Little Vienna".[
1943:Nearly every resident of the Polish farming village of Szarajowka is shot orburned alive by the SS, Wehrmacht troops, and Gestapo agents. After themassacre, the village is razed. What was the crime for which the villagers werebeing punished? Sheltering Jews
1944(25thof Iyar, 5704: Bertha Fisher, the Czech born daughter of Julie and Jose Kahn,the wife of Dr. Emilian Fischer and the mother of Ottokar an Jriri Josef GustavFischer died some after day having been shipped to Auschwitz.
1944 (25th of Iyar, 5704): Jewish partisanleader Aleksander Skotnicki was killed as his unit battled the armored SSViking Division near the Parczew Forest in Poland.
1944:Deportations from Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, to Auschwitz end with thetransport of 2500 Jews.
1944:Paul Alfred Cullen, who would reach the rank of Major General in the AustralianArmy began serving with “Headquarters 16th Brigade.”
1944:In Hungary deportations of Jews to Auschwitz would begin today with a total of437,000 being shipped to the death camp through July 7, 1944.
1944:The Battle of Monte Cassino which Michał Waszyński filmed “as a member of thearmy film unit” attached to the 2nd Corps of the Polish Army came toan end today.
1945(6thof Sivan, 5705): First observance of Shavuot after VE Day
1945:“In the East New York section of Brooklyn cabdriver Morris Finkelstein and“former Zella Ordanski” gave birth to Arthur Jay Finkelstein” a conservativepolitical operative who has supported such candidates as “President RonaldReagan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1945:In Minneapolis, MN, Jewish mobster Davie Berman and Betty Ewald gave birth tojournalist Susan Jane Berman who would be brutally murdered by Robert Durst.
1946:"Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside)" by Dinah Shore,” theTennessee born daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants “hit #1 on the BillboardHonor Roll of Hits”
1947:The unveiling “of a monument in memory of William Eisenberg is scheduled totake place this afternoon Mount Judah Cemetery.
1947:Wrigley Field in Chicago recorded the largest regular season paid attendance inits history when 46,572 people came out to see Jackie Robinson make his firstappearance at the ballpark for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a team with adisproportionately large number of Jewish fans including the author of thisblog.
1948:Moshe Dayan, who had been born in Degania, was given command of all forces inthe area, including the settlements in the Kinarot Valley, after having beencharged without creating a commando battalion in the 8th Brigade just a daybefore. A company of reinforcements from the Gadna program was allocated, alongwith 3 PIATs (a bazooka-like weapon). Other reinforcements came in the form ofa company from the Yiftach Brigade and another company of paramilitaries fromvillages in the Lower Galilee and the Jezreel Valley. The Palmach counterattackon the police station on the night of May 18 gave the Israeli forces anadditional day to prepare defense and attack plans
1948:Syrian aircraft bombed the Israeli village Kinneret and the regional schoolBeit Yerah, on the southwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
1948:After two days of fierce fighting a Syrian brigade including tanks overranZemach, killing all forty-two of the Jewish defenders.
1948:Poland, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, and Nicaragua recognized Israel.
1948: The Arab Legion captured the police fort onMt. Scopus. The illegal occupation of Mt. Scopus would end with the JuneWar in 1967.
1948: Between today and May 20, a unit of the EtzioniBrigade made repeated attempts to fight their way into the Old City at theJaffa Gate. Despite taking heavy casualties, the Jewish fighters failedin their effort. The brigade was fighting the Arab Legion, the name given tothe Jordanian Army which was trained and led by British officers.
1948:Fighting under Egyptian command Saudi Arabia joined the other Arab armies intheir invasion of Israel.
1948:Winnipegger Harvey Sirlin and his group of volunteers who were on their way to fightfor Israel “landed in Cannes” today after which they took a train to Marseilleswhere they billeted at a DP (displaced persons) camp on the outskirts ofMarseilles called “Grande Arénas” where they would begin their militarytraining.
1948:"At midnight, Egyptian police" ransacked the home of Levan Zamir inHelwan.
1948:While at school today in Egypt, Levana Zamir's teacher told her that her unclehad been taken to prison allegedly because he was a Zionist. The uncle was freed two years later andplaced on a ship bound for France.
1948:“According to Israeli historian Benny Morris” Kibbutz Bror Hayil was foundedtoday. (The founders themselves claim the date should be May 5)
1948:“Another Part of the Forest” based on the play by Lillian Hellman directed byMichael Gordon was released in the United States today.
1949:“Miss Mary Antin Wrote Noted Book” published today described the career of thelate Jewish author.
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=352
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00C13F93B5F177B93CAA8178ED85F4D8485F9
1949:Birthdate of Appleton, Wisconsin native Terry Zwigoff, the son of Jewish dairyfarmers who was raised in Chicago before pursuing his musical and film-makingpassions.
1950:As a result of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, 120,000 Jews fleeing Iraq werebrought to Israel over the course of a year's time.
1950:Israel has released the eight crewmen of an RAF flying-boat that had beenforced down yesterday by Israeli fighter planes. According to the pilot, the plan was flyingfrom Bahrain to the Suez Canal when it wandered off course due to anavigational error.
1950:Colonel Harry D. Henshel and Charles L. Orenstein announced that the UnitedStates will be represented in the third World Maccabiah Games opening in TelAviv on September 27. Henshel andOrenstein are co-chairman of the national committee for United Statesparticipation and Orenstein will chair the committee that will select theathletes.
1952:After discussing the oil situation in Israel today “in light of Britain’srefusal to grant the Jewish State credits for the purchase of crude oil stocks”the Israeli Cabinet set up “a special Ministerial committee…to prepareregulations for a fuel economy program.
1952:Funeral services are schedule to be held today for Professor Theodore Goodman,CCNY graduate class of 1915 and the husband of Lillia Goodman.
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported that AbuEliahu, 40, and Eliahu Ephraim, 45, two watchmen in the Jerusalem"corridor" were murdered by infiltrators.
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported that TheGovernment approved the special unemployment relief tax scale and hoped tocollect IL15m compulsory advance payment on account of future taxes.
1953:In Haifa, Oskar and Tikva Deutsch gave birth to David Deutsch the Britishphysicist whose doctoral advisor was Dennis Sciama and was awarded the DiracPrize in 1998.
1954(15thof Iyar, 5714): Rose Fischel Wald, the New York born wife of Albert Wald, themother of Judith Wald and leader of the “women’s division of the Union ofOrthodox Jewish Congregations passed away today in NYC.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/05/19/83333985.html?pageNumber=32
1954(15thof Iyar, 5714): Sixty-six-year-old Selig Brodetsky, the Ukraine born son ofAdel and Akiva Brodetsky, the beadle of the local Synagogue, and a “BritishProfessor of Mathematics, a member of the World Zionist Executive, who servedas the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and was the secondpresident of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem” passed away today.
1956:“In the prosperous suburbs of south Manchester,” “barrister Benet Hytner andhis wife, Joyce” gave birth to their eldest child, theatre and film directorSir Nicholas Robert Hytner.
1957(17thof Iyar, 5717): Parashat Bechukota
1958(28thof Iyar, 5718): Seventy-six-year-old Jacob “Yakov” Fichman who “received theBialik Prize for his book of poetry PeatSadeh ("A Corner of a Field")” passed away today.
1958:The 11th Cannes Film Festival where one of the entrants was “TheBrothers Karamazov” directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Pandro S. Berman,with a script by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Richard Brooks andfeaturing William Shatner in his film debut came to an end today.
1958(28thof Iyar, 5718): In Cleveland, seventy-eight-year Samuel Phillipson, the fatherof Mrs. Louis Becker of Elyria, OH passed away today at the Highland ViewHospital.
1961:“The original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘The Sound ofMusic’” opened today.
1961:It was reported today that Harry Weinberg, Roy M. Cohn and Lawrence I. Weisman“urchased portions of their Fifth Avenue Coach stock on margin” and that “theirtotal indebtedness is about $72,300.
1962(14thof Iyar, 5722): Pesach Sheni
1962(14thof Iyar, 5722): Seventy-two year old Hebrew Union College graduate and St.John’s University trained attorney, Sidney Saul Tedesche, the son of AlexanderTedeshe and Jeanette Greenfield and the holder of Ph.D. from Yale who served asa rabbi at Brith Sholom in Springfield, Beth El in Providence, Bethel El in SanAntonio, Mishkan Israel in New Haven and Union Temple in Brooklyn while raisingtwo daughters – Carol and Jeanne – with his wife “the former Irma Goldmanpassed away today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/19/140578272.pdf
1962:Two off-duty police detectives, Luke J. Fallon and John P. Finnegan, werekilled today in a botched robbery of the Boro Park Tobacco Company. Jerry Rosenberg, whose jailhouse nickname wasJerry the Jew and Anthony Portelli would be found guilty of the first doublehomicide of New York City police officers since 1927 and sentenced to death.Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller would later commute their sentences to life inprison. At the time of his death in2009, Rosenberg would be the longest serving convict in the New York Stateprison system.
1962(14thof Iyar, 5722): Fifty-seven-year-old P. Wolf Winer, the Harvard trainedattorney and “instructor of law at the School of Business at City College who“was the first president of the Great Neck Chapter of the American JewishCongress, the husband of Penina Winer and the father of Jaqueline, Lucy andThomas Winer suffered a fatal heart attack today in New York’s PennsylvaniaStation today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/19/140578362.pdf
1963(24thof Iyar, 5723): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai read for the lst time during thePresidency of John Kenney.
1964(7thof Sivan, 5724): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor observed for the first timeduring the President of Lyndon Johnson.
1965(16th of Iyar, 5725): Israeli spy Eli Cohen was publicly executed by theSyrians. This execution was aired on national Syrian television. After hisexecution, a sign with Anti-Zionist messages was placed on his hanging body.His body was left to hang for six hours. Eliwas born in Alexandria, Egypt on
1966;Eighty-eight-year-old WW I veteran Abraham Dubin, the Ukraine born son of Eliasand Edith Dubin and the husband of Philippine native Sinforosa R. ReyesMagistrado passed away today exactly 37 years after the death of his father.
1967(8thof Iyar, 5727): Seventy-eight-year-old Allen Gundersheimer, the Columbus, OH bornson of Amelia Gumble and Max Gundersheimer and the husband of Frances Joan Levypassed away today in Columbus.
1968(20thof Iyar, 5728): Parashat Emo
1968(20thof Iyar, 5728): Seventy-three-year-old Samuel Haft, the son of Jennie and MaxH. Haft passed away today in New York.
1969:In Detroit, Michigan, Rhoda Yura and Dan Glickman, the former KansasCongressman, Secretary of Agriculture, and president of the MPAA gave birth toproducer and MGM President Jonathan Glickman.
1970:In “Centenarian Recalls Suffragette Days” published today Mrs. SigmundPollitzer, the widow dermatologist Sigmund Pollitzer, a mother of two daughtersand at this time the “only living member of the first graduating class atBarnard College” provided insights into the fight for the vote and equal rightfor women.
1968:Sixty-eight-year-old Josiah Wedgwood V the Managing director of the Wedgwoodpottery firm and son of British Liberal and Labour Party Josiah Wedgwood IV whoearly on identified the threat of Nazi Germany, “worked tirelessly to helpEuropean Jewry” and was an ardent Zionist.
1971(23rdof Iyar, 5731): Eighty-three-year-old WW I veteran, University of Minnesotagraduate and Harvard Law School trained attorney Max Lowenthal, “theMinneapolis born son of Nathan (Naphtali) Lowenthal and Gertrude (Nahamah)Gitel, both Orthodox Jewish, emigrated from Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania, toMinnesota” and husband of Eleanor Mack with whom he had three children – David,John and Betty” – whose law career touched all three branches and who was aconfidant of Harry Truman as well as a target of HUAC passed away today.
1972(5thof Sivan, 5732): Erev Shavuot
1973:Having been denied the right to read from the Torah on a Saturday morning, 13year old Elena Kagan read from the Book of Ruth tonight, on Friday night.
1973(16thof Iyar, 5733): Israeli poet and Editor Avraham Shlonsky passed away. A nativeof Russia, he was a driving force in the creation of Modern Hebrew literature.Among other accomplishments he won both the Bialk and Israel prizes.
http://www.haaretz.com/life/books/biography-the-founding-father-1.361063
http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2011/02/abraham-shlonsky-toil-from-hebrew.html\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Shlonsky
1975(7thof Iyar, 5735): Eight-seven-year-old University of Michigan chemistry professorDr. Kasimir Fajans the holder of a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University who raisedtwo sons – Stefan and Edgar – with his wife Salome passed away today in AnnArbor, Michigan.
https://lsa.umich.edu/chem/about/department-history/kasimir-j--fajans---1887-1975-.html
1976(18thof Iyar, 5736): Lag B’Omer
1976:“Missouri Breaks” a western movie produced by Elliot Kastner and featuringSteve Franken as “Lonesome Kid” was released today in the United States.
1976:Seventy year Washington, D.C. grocer Cecil David Kaufman, the Detroit born ofCora and Saul Kaufmann and the husband of Isabelle Kaufmann passed away inWashington.
1977:Menachem Begin became Israel's Prime Minister. Begin's election marked amajorshift in Israeli politics. Begin was a disciple of Jabotinsky,leader of the Irgun, and the polar opposite of the Labor Zionists who haddominated Israeli politicseven before the state had been created.Begin proved to be more of a pragmatist than had been expected. He metwith Sadat and signed the Camp David Accords which led to the swapping of theSinai for a peace treaty with Egypt. Despite international furor, Beginbombed an Iraqireactor, an action that people came to appreciate afterthe firstGulf War. Begin resigned after the death of his wife andwent into a state of semi-seclusion. He passed away in 1992.
1977(1stof Sivan, 5737): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1977:Samuel Lewis, the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel, arrived today to take up hisambassadorial post.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported theUNIFIL's admission that it had allowed the terrorists to move, together withtheir arms, into South Lebanon.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that theIsraeli Government and the Jewish Agency were considering steps how to stopHIAS (the Hebrew Immigrants Aid Society), from helping Russian Jewish emigrantsto go to destinations other than Israel. Only 72 out of the 1,086 Jews who leftRussia in April, 1978, made their way to Israel.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that theMifal Hapayis designated IL7m. for education and health in the West Bank andGaza.
1980:In Israel, a stone marker was unveiled in a memorial forest of 3,500 treeswhich had been created to honor Major Noel S. Jacobs who had commanded theJewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps.
1981(14thof Iyar, 5741) Pesach Sheni observed for the first time during the Presidencyof Ronald Reagan.
1983(6thof Sivan, 5743): Shavuot
1984:“Under the Volcano” with music by Alex North premiered at the Cannes FilmFestival.
1985(27thof Iyar, 5745): Parsha Behar-Buchukotai
1985(27thof Iyar, 5745: Eighty-five-year-old Dr. Abraham Gerson Carmel, the husband ofCyrilla Wallace Carmel, his soulmate for 58 years and the son in law of PennyF. Wallace passed away today after which he was buried in the Montgomery UnitedJewish Cemetery in Montgomery, OH.
1986:Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir “demanded to prosecute Avraham Shalom, head ofthe GSS” (General Security Service) as part of his investigation intoallegations that two terrorists had been murdered by the GSS.
1986:Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman married Rosalind Ann Walrath atthe Harvard Club of New York.
1987:Final broadcast of “Fame” a television series based on the movie of the samename co-starring Valerie Landsburg
1988:Braving a steady rain, 750 supporters of Shimon Peres attended a rally for theIsraeli foreign minister at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan today.
1990:“Bird On A Wire” a comedy produced by Rob Cohn, with a script by David Seltzer,co-starring Gold Hawn and with music by Hans Zimmer was released today in theUnited States.
1991(5thof Sivan, 5751): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1991:“Barton Fink” directed, produced and written by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring MichaelLerner premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
1991:The Associated Press reported that the B. Manischewitz Company was given a $1million fine by United States District Judge Harold Ackerman for conspiring tofix the price of Passover matzoth. Manischewitz had pleaded no contest to acriminal indictment last month, saying it could not defend charges it conspiredto fix prices from 1981 to at least April 1986. The indictment saidManischewitz, based in Jersey City, had conspired to raise the price of $25million worth of Passover matzoth in cooperation with Horowitz Brothers &Margareten and with Aron Streit Inc., both of New York. Horowitz has since beentaken over by Manischewitz. The Government has not said why Horowitz and AronStriet were not indicted. The merchant banking firm of Kohlberg & Companyacquired Manischewitz in January and had nothing to do with the scheme.
1993: “Cup Final” an Israeli movie directed by EranRiklis was released in the United Kingdom today
1994:Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in what was supposed to have been one stepalong the road topeace with the Palestinians.
1995:Simone Veil “born Simone Annie Liline Jacob, the daughter of a Jewisharchitect” completed her second term as French Minister of Health.
1996(29thof Iyar, 5756): English businessman and racehorse owner Simon Weinstock passesaway at the age of 44
1996(29thof Iyar, 5756): Eighty-seven-year-old Prague born Charles University graduateDr. Arthur Katz who “served as rabbi to two communities near the Austrianborder before fleeing when the Germans “marched in” and made his way to Englandwhere he served as assistant Rabbi at West London Synagogue and “first ministerat the Hendon Reform Synagogue” where his successor was his son Rabbi StephenKatz.
1997:The New York Times featured reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case by Mordecai Richler.
1997:Today actor and comedian Michael David Rapaport, the New York born son of JuneBrody and David Rapaport and “an Ashkenazi Jew whose family came from Polandand Russia” ‘was arrested for harassing ex-girlfriend Lili Taylor and chargedwith two counts of aggravated harassment” after which he ‘pleaded guilty to thecharges in court and New York Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg issued aprotection order to keep the actor from contacting Taylor, as well as mandatingthat he undergo counseling sessions.’
1997:Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Frank E. Campbell for DianaGertz Radin, the mother of Joan Gertz Wilner and Benjamin Ira Gertz ad thewidow of Louis Simon Gertz, one of the five brothers who along with his fatherBenjamin Gertz founded Gertz department store in 1918 and later sold it toAllied Stores in 1941.
1997:Today, the Chicago Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to “present a filmabout the first hundred years of Jewish history in Chicago.”
1998:This evening Angela Landsburg is scheduled “to host the 92nd StreetY Tribute to Maurice Levine” the “founder of the 92nd Street YMHA’sLyrics and Lyricist Series.”
2000:Israeli troops began evacuating southern Lebanon “preparation for an overallpullout from the area which is to be completed by the end of July.
2000:Despite denials by Greek and Israeli officials “a Palestinian legislator said eggs were thrown at PresidentCostas Stephanopoulos of Greece as he toured the walled Old City, to protesthis position on Jerusalem.”
2001(25thof Iyar, 5761): Tirza Polonsky, 66, of Moshav Kfar Haim; Miriam Waxman, 51, ofHadera; David Yarkoni, 53, of Netanya; Yulia Tratiakova, 21, of Netanya; andVladislav Sorokin, 34, of Netanya were killed in a suicide bombing at HasharonMall in the seaside city of Netanya, in which over 100 were wounded. Hamasclaimed responsibility for the attack (Jewish Virtual Library)
2001(25thof Iyar, 5761): Lt. Yair Nebenzahl, 22, of Neve Tzuf (Halamish), was killed andhis mother seriously wounded, in a Palestinian roadside ambush north ofJerusalem.
2002(7thof Sivan, 5762): Second Day of Shavuot
2002(7thof Sivan, 5762): Zypora Spaisman, Polish born American actress and longtimesupporter of the Yiddish theatre, passed away at the age of 86.
2003:The New York Times featured books byJewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Heart,You Bully, You Bully, You Punk” by Leah Hager Cohen.
2003(16thof Iyar, 5763): “Seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide bombingon Egged bus #6 near French Hill in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility forthe attack. Half an hour later, a second suicide bomber was killed when he wasintercepted by police at a roadblock in northern Jerusalem. The victims: OlgaBrenner, 52, of Jerusalem; Yitzhak Moyal, 64, of Jerusalem; Nelly Perov, 55, ofJerusalem; Ghalab Tawil, 42, of Shuafat; Marina Tsahivershvili, 44, ofJerusalem; Shimon Ustinsky, 68, of Jerusalem; and Roni Yisraeli, 34, ofJerusalem.”
2003:Steve Averbach “was on a bus heading to work when a Palestinian terroristdressed as a fervently Orthodox Jew got on board. Averbach realized immediatelythat he was a suicide bomber. As he reached for his handgun, the terrorist blewhimself up, killing seven people and seriously injuring 20, including Averbach.Israel’s internal security ministry later wrote Averbach a letter saying, “Aninvestigation of the incident revealed that you were courageous, brave, andselfless in attempting to prevent a mortal attack.” It said the bomber hadplanned to blow himself up in the crowded center of town or in the bus station,where the death toll would have been far higher.”
2004:American Jewish Heritage Torah Day as proclaimed by Albany, NY Mayor KathySheehan
2004: The IDF launched Operation Rainbow in response tothe deaths of 13 soldiers, the majority of whom were killed after their armoredpersonnel carriers were blown up in the southern Gazan town of Rafah. The goalof the eight-day operation was to uncover weapons-smuggling tunnels along thePhiladelphi Corridor, and to prevent the smuggling of Strella shoulder-to-airanti-aircraft missiles from the Sinai into Gaza.
2005:In Belgium, premiere of “Or” (My Treasure) an Israeli-French production thathad won five awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
2006:Ex-Movie Exec Isn’t Silent About Films published today provides Jean HersholtHumanitarian Oscar Winner Roger Mayer’s view of the industry to which hedevoted 53 years of his life.
2006:The daughter of the late Ruth Laredo, the classical pianist who had passed awayin 2005, organized a concert to honor the memory of Ruth Laredo at “the GraceRainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.”
2008:After eight years, FOX broadcast the final episode of “That '70s Show,” asitcom co-starring Mila Kunis.
2006: ASarajevo publisher announced that The Sarajevo Haggadah, a centuries-old Jewish holy bookthat survived the Spanish inquisition, the Nazi Holocaust and Bosnia's1992-1995 war has been reprinted in limited editions. “The Sarajevo Haggadah”was made into 613 copies on hand-made paper that recreates the appearance ofthe 14th century original by 95 percent, the head of the Rabic publishinghouse, Goran Mikulic, told Agence France Presse. The number of copies waschosen to symbolize the numberof commandments, or mitzvoth,that Jews are obliged to observe. "The edition was printed in Italy andalmost everything was done by hand," Mikulic said. The originalhandwritten manuscript on bleached calfskin illuminated in copper and gold isthe world's oldest Sephardic Haggadah, containing the text recited by Jews onthe Passover holiday.
2006:“The White House announced that Donald Kohn had been nominated by PresidentGeorge W. Bush to serve a four year term as the vice chairman of the FederalReserve System.
2006:Rabbi Ada Zavidov is declared the new chairwoman of the Reform Movement'sRabbinic Council at the opening of the Israel Movement for ProgressiveJudaism's 18th Biennial Convention.About 1,000 rabbis and movement members, including Rabbi ElliottKleinman, vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism in America attend theconference, which focuses on the Jewish family. Zavidov, granddaughter of AbaAchimeir - one of the founding fathers of the Revisionist Party in pre-stateIsrael - is the first female Israeli native to chair the rabbinic council.
2007: RoshChodesh Sivan, 5767
2007: Thefifth season of Kokhav Nolad, the popular Israeli television show, began today.
2007: The fivecandidates for the leadership of the Labor Party face off in a Labor centralcommittee meeting in Tel Aviv that will decide whether Labor should leave PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert's government.
2007: TheUniversity of Teramo closed one of its campuses to prevent a planned lecture byRobert Faurisson, a retired French professor who denies gas chambers were usedin Nazi concentration camps.
2008: PhoenixMayor Phil Gordon declared today, "Jewish News of Greater PhoenixDay" in honor of the newspaper's "exemplary service to the communityand the Jewish people".
2008: Veteranjournalist Jane Eisner was appointed to be the first female editor of the Forward.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/18/2008/jane-eisner
2008: The Jewish Historical Society ofGreater Washington marks the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel with aseries of book talks by Laura CohenApelbaum on Jewish Washington:Scrapbook of an American Community (the companion to the award-winningexhibit of the same name) the third of which is held at Barnes & Noble inRockville, Md.
2008:The New York Times book sectionfeatured a review of Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs.
2008:The Washington Post book sectionfeatured a review of Ellen Feldman’s novel entitled Scottsboro which“painstakingly recreates the infamous Scottsboro case, complete with all thetwists and turns and society-exposing foibles.”Two Jewish lawyers, Samuel Leibowitz and Joseph Brodsky, saved the livesof the defendants in this infamous case.
2008:In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah hosts it’s Temple Wide Picnic marking theclose of the Religious School year; farewell until Fall.
2008:The appointment of Jane R. Eisner, former editorial page editor of thePhiladelphia Inquirer as editor of TheForward is officially approved at today’s meeting of The ForwardAssociation
2008: The Quad City Jewish Federation hosts IsraeliYom Ha’Azma’ut Rally inBettendorf, Iowa featuring Sasha Grishkov,finalist from the Israeli television series AStar is Born (Israeli version of AmericanIdol) who will perform with her Israeli band.
2008:“Pamela's First Musical,” written with Cy Coleman and David Zippel, based onWendy Wasserstein's children's book, received its world premiere in a concertstaging at Town Hall in New York City today.
2008(13thof Iyar, 5768): Ninety-six year old actor and director Joseph Pevney “the sonof a Jewish watchmaker” passed away today. (As reported by Ronald Bergan)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/may/31/television
2009;New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman address the Class of 2009 atGrinnell
College’scommencement exercises where he receivesan honorary degree along with
JodieLevin-Epstein, deputy director of the Center for Law and Social Policy inWashington, D.C.
2009:The Arizona Chapter of the American Jewish Committee presented the Greater Phoenix Jewish News with theRosaLee Shluker Community Service Award in honor of its 60th anniversary.
2009: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets withPresident Barak Obama in Washington, D.C.
2009: In an article about The Tribeca/ESPN Sportsfilm festival, Sports Illustrated singles out “A Matter of Size,” anIsraeli film about Herzl Musiker, a middle-aged fat Israel waiter, whodiscovers his salvation in the world of Sumo Wrestling.
2009: In a Lecture on Nazi Propaganda at the Libraryof Congress, Dr.Gabriel Weimann, a Professor of Communication at Haifa University, Israel andat the American University, Washington, D.C., examines the social andpsychological mechanisms activated by the sophisticated and powerful Nazipropaganda. The multi-media presentation includes posters, movies, speeches,public events, books, cartoons and other media used by the Nazis.
2009:In the best tradition of genteel British anti-Semitism, movie director KenLoach called for people to boycott the Edinburgh Film Festival if festival’ssponsors accept a 300 pound grant from the Israeli embassy that will enable“Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for ascreening of her film, ‘Surrogate.’”
2009:Michael Sandel gave the 2009 Reith Lectures on "A New Citizenship" inLondon
2009,American money manager and Bernard Madoff association Jacob Ezra Merkin'scontrol of Ascot, Gabriel and Ariel hedge funds are to be placed intoreceivership for liquidation by Guidepost Partners
2010(5thof Sivan, 5770): Erev Shavuot
2010:Founding editor of DoubleX Hanna Rosin and Slate editor David Plotz arescheduled to let loose on the Bible while Alyssa Shelasky of Apron Anxiety isscheduled to whip up a dairy dish and Shavuotini for all to taste as part of“The Ten: An Alternative Shavuot Experience” in Washington, D.C.
2011:Convicted white-collar crook, Andrew Fastow was released to a Houston halfwayhouse for the remainder of his sentence.
2011:The YIVO Institute is scheduled to present a special evening with acclaimednovelist Philip Roth during which Roth will read excerpts from his new novel,“Nemesis” which tells the story of a terrifying polio epidemic raging inNewark, New Jersey in the summer of 1944 and its devastating effect on theclosely knit, family-oriented community and its children.
2011:Charlotte Dubin, award-winning writer and editor for many publications,including Michigan Jewish History and the Detroit Jewish News is scheduled toreceive the Leonard N. Simons History Award atthe
JewishHistorical Society of Michigan’s Annual Meeting
2011:Shelomo Alfassá, a writer, author, editor, curator and historian, whose focushas been on Iberian and Ottoman Jewish history, culture and Jewish law, isscheduled to deliver an illustrated lecture that “will give an overview of thehistory of Sephardic Jews – from Spain and Portugal to New York City” sponsoredby the Derfner Judaica Museum at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York City.
2011:David McKenzie is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Jewish Life in Mr.Lincoln's City” sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of GreaterWashington
2011:The "Arbeit Macht Frei” sign stolen from Auschwitz and cut into threepieces has been repaired.
Theiron sign was unveiled today in the laboratory of the camp museum. Repairs tothe sign, which measures 16 feet across and means "Work makes youfree," took several months. It was stolen from the former Naziconcentration camp on Dec. 18, 2009 and recovered elsewhere in the country 72hours later. It was found cut into three pieces.A copy of the sign has beenplaced above the entrance gate. The repaired sign will likely become part of anew exhibition, the BBC reported. Five Polish men were convicted of carryingout the theft on behalf of a Swedish citizen, Anders Hogstrom, who acted as amiddleman for a neo-Nazi buyer. Hogstrom founded the far-right NationalSocialist Front party in Sweden in 1994.
2011:Philip Roth, the much-lauded author of "Portnoy's Complaint", won thebiennial Man Booker International Prize today, adding to a collection of prizesthat includes two National Book Awards.
Roth,whose work includes his noted 1959 debut "Goodbye, Columbus", hasalso won the Pulitzer Prize for "American Pastoral", featuringfavored narrator Nathan Zuckerman.In October, he told Reuters that he dislikede-books and the distracting influences of modern technology, which he feltdiminish the ability to appreciate the aesthetic experience of reading books onpaper.."It is a shame. It is also what is happening, and there is nothingat all to do about it," he said. The prize, announced during the SydneyWriters' Festival, is worth 60,000 pounds for the winner, and living authorswhose works of fiction are either originally in English or generally availablein English translation are eligible. It honors a writer's body of work asopposed to the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is awarded for asingle book.
Othernominees for the award included Rohinton Mistry, Philip Pullman and Anne Tyler.British author John LeCarre, known for spy classics including "The Spy WhoCame in From the Cold", had rejected his nomination, saying he did notcompete for literary prizes, but the judges kept him on the shortlist anyway,citing their admiration for his work. Chinese writers featured in the 2011shortlist for the first time in the form of Wang Anyi, who wrote "The Songof Everlasting Sorrow" published in 1996, and Su Tong, whose novella"Wives and Concubines" was the basis of the screenplay for theOscar-nominated movie "Raise the Red Lantern". Previous winners ofthe award were Canadian writer Alice Munro (2009), Nigeria's Chinua Achebe(2007), and Albanian Ismail Kadare, who scooped the inaugural prize in 2005.The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in London on June 28.
2012:Facebook, the creation of Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to have it initialpublic offering (IPO)
2012:Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital, Partnership for Jewish Lifeand Learning, Temple Micah, Temple Sinai Nursery School and Washington HebrewCongregation are scheduled to sponsor ShirLaLa Family Shabbat Service andDinner featuring Shira Klein.
2013:The 721 general assembly commissioners representing the Church of Scotland arescheduled to vote on “The Inheritance of Abraham,” a report which saysscripture” provides no basis for Jewish claims to Israel” (As reported by JTA)
2013:The IPO String Trio is scheduled to perform two musicales in the San FranciscoBay area.
2013:In Israel the Indigo Festival on the Sea of Galilee and the Abu Gosh Festivalare scheduled to come to an end.
2013:“Bezalel on Tour” will be on view for the first time at G91 Loft in New YorkCity.
2013:Cantor Joel Caplan of Agudath Israel in Caldwell, NJ, will lead Shabbat morningservice at Agudas Achim, as the Iowa City congregation dedicates its newfacility in suburban Coralville. CantorCaplan is the son of Dick and Ellen Caplan, pillars of the Iowa City Jewishcommunity. Cantor Caplan began his Jewish odyssey at Augdas Achim under theguidance of Rabbi Jeff Portman and began his musical odyssey at West High inIowa City.
2013:The advanced S-300 Russian air defense system, which Moscow has pledged todeliver to Syria, could be transferred toHezbollah and beyond, a senior defense official warned today. AmosGilad, head of the security-diplomatic branch of the Defense Ministry, toldChannel 2, "These weapons are dangerous. If Hezbollah and Iran supportSyria, why shouldn't they [the Syrians] transfer these weapons to Hezbollah?It's a threat to us, a threat to the Americans, and a threat to the PersianGulf."
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Amos-Gilad-S-300-can-reach-Hezbollah-via-Syria-313554
2013:There is no chance that Israel could reach a peace agreement with Hamas,Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said this evening in an interview with Army Radio.
2014:The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers including American Innovations byRivka Galchen and To Rise at a Decent Hour by University of Iowagraduate Joshua Ferris
2014(18thof Iyar, 5774): Lag B’Omer
2014:“The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the Rockland County JCC.
2014:In Rockville, MD, as part of the B’nai Israel Distinguished Scholar Series,Mark Smith and Elizabeth Bloch-Smith are scheduled to speak on “Roots ofIsraelite Monotheism: Evidence from Archaeology & Texts.”
2014:“Jewish reggae star Matisyahu” is scheduled to perform with cantor JessicaHutchings at Temple Menorah in Redondo Beach, CA.(As reported by ReneeGhert-Zand)
2014:“The “Holocaust Cellar” is scheduled to open today, as part of the Holocaustmuseum located in Wiesel’s pre-World War II home, which sits in the old JewishGhetto of Sighet in Maramures County.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/elie-wiesels-childhood-home-to-become-education-center/
2014:The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is scheduled to host “Israel@66”celebrating Israel’s 66th birthday
2014:“Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv won the Euroleague basketball final 96-86 tonightagainst Real Madrid in Milan in an overtime victory.”
2014:“Israel’s tourism ministry said today it expects the papal visit later thismonth to give a sharp boost to tourism by Christians, who already account for amajority of tourism to the Holy Land.”
2014:New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential hopeful “gives the keynoteaddress today at the Champions of Jewish Values International awards gala inNew York.”
2015:The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of Wing and aPrayer followed by a panel discussion of the documentary that describes therole of a handful of mostly foreign pilots in the creation of the State ofIsrael.
2015:“In a historic decision” Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, the head of the IDF GeneralStaff today “decided to disband the IDF’s hom*ogeneous Druze battalion, astoried unit that no longer drew the top recruits from within the community andseemed to symbolize a segregation whose time had long since passed.”
2015:“Reform and Conservative rabbis blasted the Orthodox rabbinical group Tzohartoday for its decision to veto their participation in an upcoming Shavuotall-night learning program in Tel Aviv.”
2015:Alicia Jo Rabins is scheduled to “examine the Book of Ruth through midrash andart” as part of JWA’s first-ever on-line lunch and learn.
2015:A special screening of “A Wing and a Prayer” was held in New York.
2015:In partnership with the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington and theLibrary's Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division Historianand storyteller Tammy Hepps is scheduled to present "In Search of a UsablePast: Reconstructing the Jewish History of Homestead, Pennsylvania."
2015(29thof Iyar, 5775): Eighty-year-old “quiz kid” Ruth Duskin Feldman passed awaytoday. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2015:Charles Philip “Chuck” Rosenberg began serving as the Administrator of the DrugEnforcement Administration.
2015(29thof Iyar, 5775): Recitation of Tefillat HaShlah - the Shelah's Prayer sinceRabbi Isaac Horowitz wrote that the eve of the first day of the Hebrew month ofSivan is the most auspicious time to pray for the physical and spiritualwelfare of one's children and grandchildren, since Sivan was the month that theTorah was given to the Jewish people.
http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/orgs/key/shlokey.htm#english
2016(10thof Iyar, 5776): Seventy-five-year-old political scientist and author Susan J.Tolchin passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2016:The Shekel, The Journal of Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics, publishedsince 1968, is scheduled to publish its first special issue--dedicated toJewish American Heritage Month today.
2016:In Baltimore, MD, the JCCs of North America Biennial Convention is scheduled tocome to an end.
2016:In Philadelphia, Rabbi Lance J. Sussman is scheduled to present “SuburbanFrontiers: Jewish Life in Philadelphia Since 1960.”
2016:In Cedar Rapids, IA, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Helga’sDiary by Helga Weiss.
2016:The Jewish Book Council is scheduled to presentRabbi David Wolpe inconversation with the 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Authors;WinnerLisa Moses Leff, Choice Award Recipient Yehudah Mirsky and Fellows Dan Ephron,Aviya Kushner, and Adam D. Mendelsohn.
2017:Today, “one of Ehud Olmert’s attornies was caught by prison officers withclassified material belonging to the former prime minister after a visit to hisjail” triggering “a search of the cell” during which “security officers foundadditional classified documents.”
2017:The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Six Days and Fifty Years: MilitaryMiracle and Political Dilemma” featuring Ambassador Dennis Ross and journalistYossi Klein Halevi.
2017:After six days, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “TheZookeeper’s Wife.”
2017:Holocaust survivor Julius Menn is scheduled to speak at the USHMM inWashington, DC.
2018:“Choreographer Andrea Miller and Gallim (Hebrew for “waves”) are scheduled toperform at the Met Breuer with new works designed to engage with the Museum’sgalleries and great spaces” this evening.
2018:In response to suit for breach of contract filed by conductor James Levine whohas been fired “by the Metropolitan Opera for sexual misconduct” the Met hassued him “arguing in court papers filed today “that Mr. Levine harmed thecompany and detailing previously unreported accusations of sexual harassmentand abuse against him.” (As reported by Michael Cooper)
2018:In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host its third “UnpluggedShabbat” featuring Dan Nichols.
2018:The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to hold elections forPresident and Vice President after the Friday Night Dinner.
2019(13thof Iyar, 5779): Parashat Emor; Pirke Avot Chapter 3;
2019:As Jews observe Shabbat, they are coping with yesterday’s news of the death ofauthor Herman Wouk and the report that over a twenty year period Dr. RichardStrauss, a physician at Ohio State University had abused “at least 177students” most of whom were athletes and that the University which pridesitself on its athletic program did not report the abuse to authorities asrequired by law and let me him “retire voluntarily with emeritus status.
2019:Adam Burstain, the son of Todd and Jen Burstain, a smart and caring young man,is scheduled to become an alum today as he graduates from Tulane Universitytoday.
2019:In Tel Aviv, the final session of “the Eurovision Song Contest 2019” isscheduled to begin today “at 22:00 IDT.”
2019:In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts is scheduled to host a screening of “Cairoto the Cloud: The World of the Cairo Geniza.”
2020:Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies is scheduled to host a virtualpresentation by “Emory professor Miriam Urdel talking about the ideology behindYiddish books for children and how they cultivated resilience”
2020:The Virtual Sonoma County JCC Israeli Film is scheduled to host a screening of“The Dove Flyer,” “a 2014 historical drama about a 16-year old Zionist activistin 1950’s Baghdad.
2020:The Jewish Community of the North Shore is scheduled to present Ariela HaLevi“for an online evening of hope and healing.
2020:The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Takin on the NRA” during which apanel led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg will answer the question “Will Federal gunlegislation ever pass?”
2020:The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “Values andConsequences in the Halakhic Process: A Sephardi Perspective” with Bar-IlanUniversity Professor Zvi Zohar
2020:LSJS is scheduled to host Rabbi Joseph Dweck and Rabbi Dr Zarum in another'Epic' shiur, during which they look at the book of Vayikra, “discuss the'guts' of the Torah and put the book in a whole new light.”
2021:This evening the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Federation of GreaterDes Monies are scheduled to present information about high-quality virtualresources for Holocaust education that encourage students to stand up againstinjustice in their community.
2021:Based on previously published reports, Israelis can expect more rocket attacksfrom Gaza as well as Lebanon today, but they can also take “comfort” in thereports that “President Joe Biden's administration approved the potential saleof $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel.”
2021(16thof Sivan 5781): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
2022:As part of its 2022 First Person Series, the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum is scheduled to host a presentation by Allan Firestone who willdescribed “traumatic losses and his miraculous survival.”
2022:LBI International President and acclaimed historian Prof. MichaelBrenner(American University/University of Munich) is scheduled to discuss hisnew book, Hitler’s Munich: The Revolution and the Rise of Nazism, anaccount of how Bavaria’s capital city became the testing ground for Nazism andthe Final Solution.
2022:“Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to Mount Meron to night tocelebrate Lag Ba’omer, exactly one year after 45 people died there in astampede.”(As reported by the Jerusalem Post)
2023(27thof Iyar, 5783): Eighty-one-year-old billionaire real estate investor and onetime owner of the Chicago Tribune, Samuel Zell first known as Shmuel Zielonka whenborn in Chicago to refugees from Nazi occupied Poland Ruchla (Rochelle) andBerek (Bernard) Zielonka and a member of AEPi while attending University ofMichigan where he earned a BA and JD passed away today.
https://www.forbes.com/profile/sam-zell/?sh=4a5aa76219df
https://michiganross.umich.edu/news/remembering-visionary-donor-and-entrepreneur-sam-zell
2023:The Lockdown University is scheduled to host online Lyn Julius’ lecture onNazis in the Middle East.
2023:The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host the Exhibition Opening of“The Girl in the Diary.”
2023:Jerusalem Police have made “intensive preparations” for the Jerusalem Day FlagMarch scheduled to take place today.
2023:The Sir Martin Gilbert Center is scheduled to host a lecture by Elliot Clark on“The Shadowed Advisor: The Role of Clementine Churchill.”
2023:Lockdown University is scheduled to host a webinar in which Trudy Golddiscusses the “Growth of Antisemitism in the Communist East.”
2024(10thof Iyar, 5784): Parashat Emor; Pirke Avot Chapter Three
formore see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:In Israel, the Edem-Tamir Center is scheduled to host “EnsembleMillennium/Toscanini Quartet, Ensemble in Residence and Friends.
2024:As Jews observe Shabbat, they mourn the loss Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila,and Shani Louk whose bodies were recovered after they had been murdered “by Hamasterrorists who kidnapped their bodies.”
2024:JWI’s “I BelieveIsraeli Women initiative” is scheduled to be on the ground in Israel beginningtoday.
2024:As May 18th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps theUnited States and the Hamas held hostages begin day225 in captivity. (Editor’snote: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are justproviding a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
